The Deep Elves are descendants of the original wood-elves of the forest of Lintanir, the great groove in the northwest of the Great Continent. Being nothing more than just shadows of their former selves, the Deep Elves reside in the caverns of Blackqvasten, a place hidden underneath the heart of the Great Continent where neither the dead nor the living can see. At the lowest point of Blackqvasten lies the Black Lake, where a statue of Shassagoth stands. Shassagoth, often displayed as a huge black dragon, directs the Deep Elves from his shadow realm. They serve him loyally and unquestioningly, and he, in turn, smites their foes.

In the darkness of the depths, the former elves made a pact with Shassagoth and transformed. Some gained a skin as bright as the stars, a skin which could render blades and arrows harmless. These elves are called Lightborn. They retain their faerie nature, illuminating the dark caverns with their mere presence. Others evolved a skin as dark as the night, granting them shelter in the darkest realms and allowing them to merge with the shadows, quickly moving through the nights. Still others developed a skin as red as blood, reflecting the crimson liquid spilled in battle, as a sign of their remarkable powers in blade or magic. Despite their distinguishing characteristics, the pact that the Deep Elves made with Shassagoth unifies them all. And what once was elf has now become a tool of darkness.

The followers of the depths create statues of Shassagoth throughout the vast plains of the Great Continent as monuments to expand his influence. Now, scores of statues of Shassagoth have been established, even in the most remote regions. Their stone eyes watch and wait, biding their time until the darkness once again covers the lands.

Bloodmaiden
Blood Maidens are frequently found in the city-state of Blackqvasten. Equipped with razor-sharp blades, the Blood Maidens ferociously assault the foes of Shassagoth, sating their lust for battle with the blood of their enemies. Once, the Blood Maiden were Elvish Swordswomen, but have since been warped by the darkness of Shassagoth. Now, their former brothers and sisters are their mortal enemies.

Vengeance
A Blood Maiden whose sword has bathed in the blood of her foes is granted new powers and becomes a Vengeance. When their lesser sisters fall on the forefront of battle, those of the Vengeance caste only fight more furiously, frenziedly pursuing the killers of their slain kin. This has earned them their namesake, as they commonly, and rightly, viewed as the avengers from the deep.

Seeker
Whoever has incurred the hatred of the ghostly apparition that is the Seeker will find death. Immune to both swords and arrows, Seekers are said to be able freely traverse through walls, relentlessly pursing their marked quarries. The hunted prey is plagued with nightmares of its own death until the Seeker’s blade transforms its visions into reality. It is said that the Seeker’s sword consumes the souls of its marks, imprisoning them within a cage of cold steel.

Lightborn
The Lightborn is a strange occurrence among the Deep Elves. In stark contrast to the impenetrable darkness of the depths of Blackqvasten, the Lightborns are capable of emitting brilliant light, an ability directly contrary to the darkness-based abilities of their kin. It is said that the Lightborns have retained their faerie nature from their former elvish selves the most. This grants them the ability to cast forth spheres of light to blind their enemies.

Phade
Over the course of many years, some Lightborns begin merging with the element that is their weapon and appear to begin transforming into the light itself. An elf that has attained this status is called a Phade, a magical being whose physical body has the appearance of fading away into pure light. In fact, some say that only her enchanted armor stops her body from vanishing completely. In close proximity, the Phade rushes through the bodies of her enemies, while from afar, she blasts them with torrents of blinding light.

Corrupted
Even among the Lightborns, the Corrupted are rarely seen in Blackqvasten and the realms of the depths. While a Corrupted maintains some of her nature as a faerie, the presence of Shassagoth has distorted and empowered it with darkness. As a result, the Corrupted has access to high forms of destructive magic that allow her to pull enemies directly into Shassagoth’s shadow realms, where they are slowly consumed by the darkness.

Irr
The Irr is a Phade that has been freed of its enchanted armor. As a being of pure light, the Irr blinds her foes with her mere presence, sowing confusion among them when they draw too close. Although rarely encountered in proximity, when an Irr is encountered in depths, she often leads foolish wanderers down treacherous paths into deadly traps, from which they never escape.

Matriarch
The Matriarch is the leader of groups of Priestesses and has been blessed by Shassagoth himself. She has access to various forms of dark magic, which can be used both offensively as a means to slay enemies, and defensively as a way to guard the depths and spread the darkness’s influence. Matriarchs are often responsible for building statues of Shassagoth throughout the great continent.

Patroness
Patronesses are highly respected individuals among the ranks of the Deep Elves. While the Seers focus on mystical abilities and their connection to Shassagoth, Patronesses concentrate on honing their destructive abilities, allowing them to can cast magic of incredible raw power. Patronesses act as generals for the Deep Elves and often lead their armies into battle.

Seer
The Seer is unique in that she is intimately connected with Shassagoth and can directly consult him. As such, the leaders of the Deep Elves often contact the Seers before engaging in combat. The success of the Deep Elves hinges on the ability of the Seers to predict the future and anticipate their enemies’ intentions. Although blind and unable to speak, it is often said that in the absence of the Harbinger, the Seers are the true leaders of the Deep Elves.

Harbinger
The Harbinger is the leader of the Deep Elves and an earthly representation of Shassagoth. She is rarely seen, but wherever a Harbinger does appear, it can be certain that war is imminent. Those who have witnessed her sorcery firsthand have described it as a line of destruction, capable of devouring everything in its path and leaving nothing but blood and death. It believed that the Harbinger channels the energies of Shassagoth himself, providing her a potent means to further spread the influence of the darkness.

There is one that has a problem.

Priestress of the Vault
The Priestess of the Vault has dedicated her life to serving Shassagoth. In her former life she once was a shaman, a healer and a caretaker of the forests. Now, she has become a guardian of the depths and a despoiler of nature. Despite this, the Priestess has preserved some of her former magical capabilities and can summon arcane barrages to wear down her enemies. She sometimes infiltrates elvish territory, trying to convince more of her former sisters to join the ranks of Shassagoth.

Priestress should be Priestess. My guess is that your unit name is also misspelled, unless it was your intention to spell it that way. If it is, then you can change the spelling on the others, since I corrected them all to "Priestess" already. Also, "Whisp" is usually spelled "Wisp" although there may be some version of it in an English variant that spells it whisp. Not sure, my recommendation is to change it to "Wisp".

Tyr‘Hai Rider
Tyr‘Hai are reptilian creatures that live in the caverns below the Great Continent that have been domesticated by the Deep Elves. Although the Deep Elves usually rely on the powers granted to them by Shassagoth, they acknowledge that the simple brute force provided by the Tyr’Hai is sometimes needed. The Tyr‘Hai allow the lesser Deep Elves to quickly move through the caverns of Blackqvasten.

Tyr‘Hai Cavalry
Tyr‘Hai Riders who have proven themselves in battle are granted a lance and join the ranks of the Tyr‘Hai Cavalry. Although the lance is powerful enough to impale adversaries even through thick layers of armor, the great Tyr‘Hai itself often causes even more damage, devouring enemies with ease as it dissolves their flesh and armor.

Black Tyr‘Hai
Black Tyr‘Hai are Tyr‘Hai that have been infested with the presence of Shassagoth. They are trustworthy companions that often protect smaller groups of Deep Elves. These reptilian creatures lurk in caverns outside the city of Blackqvasten and have the ability to drain the life force of the creatures that they bite.

Shadow Tyr‘Hai
The rare Shadow Tyr‘Hai is a gigantic version of the lesser Tyr’Hai whose natural habitat is unknown. Some believe they lurk in the deepest part of the depths, while others say, they reside in the very realm of Shassagoth. Sharing a deep connection with Shassagoth, the Shadow Tyr’Hai defend the Priestesses from the darkness and protect them from harm in their travels. They are believed to feast on the souls of their prey, consuming spirit along with body in their mighty jaws.

Nightmaiden
Nightmaidens are a type of Deep Elf that inherited the darkness itself when they were transformed by Shassagoth. Donning light armor, the Nightmaidens’ dark skin allow them to dance through the night and the dark, avoiding enemy attacks with ease. Despite their frail appearance, their agility and skill with blades make them deadly foes in combat, especially under the shroud of darkness.

Nightstalker
A Nightmaiden who has proven herself in battle is bestowed the name Nightstalker. Upon this promotion, her blades are blessed by the waters of the Black Lake and she is granted a crossbow, allowing her to assassinate targets from the shadows. Combined with her ability to track and follow enemies through the darkest of nights, the Nightstalker’s abilities make her an excellent assassin, able to kill her enemies often without fear of retaliation.

Vault Lurker
The Vault Lurker is a being that emerged from the Black Lake itself and is filled with the essence of Shassagoth. As an entity born of darkness, it can meld perfectly with any shadow, allowing it to perfectly stalk its enemies without fear of detection. This ability makes the Vault Lurkers among the most feared of the Deep Elves, for against the Deep Elves, one’s own shadow may become their own worst enemy.

Baroness of the Night
The Baroness of the Night is equipped with an enchanted crossbow whose bolts are guided by the darkness and rarely miss their targets. She additionally wields a pair of dual-swords with which she can easily cut through both flesh and bone, rending them with the sheer power of the shadows. The Baroness is also granted the ability to step through the shadow realm, allowing her to move quickly in combat and avoid attacks while striking her enemies where they least expect her.

Minotaur
Minotaurs are bulky creatures that were once cursed by an unknown force. For eons, Minotaurs turn to stone when the light of the sun touches their skin, forcing them to inhabit the depths of the Great Continent. Shassagoth promised to lift the curse of the Minotaurs if they would bend themselves to his will and fight his foes. For this reason, the Minotaurs decided to serve Shassagoth and are often seen in the vast realm of the Deep Elves.

Wisp
A wisp is a flickering light with magical capabilities. These mysterious entities roam the caverns of Blackqvasten, usually wandering alone in the endless darkness. Generally, wisps are not dangerous, even to beings that do not inhabit the depths, although they are known to produce magic of extraordinary power when gathered in large enough numbers. Legends say that the Wiss are nothing more than lost souls, tortured by Shassagoth to wander through the depths on unending journies to find peace.

Greater Wisp
Sometimes, one may find Wisps gathered in clusters in the depths. In their midst, there appear a few larger wisps that are stronger than their smaller kin. These Greater Wisps have the potential to cast lower forms of magic and are more durable than the smaller Wisps. It is unknown how these Greater Wisps came to be, but the strange light that they emanate attracts nearby wisps, whereupon more Greater Wisps will eventually be found when the Wisps begin to cluster.

Wispmother
Wispmothers are rare beings that glow with mysterious, eerie energy that simultaneously appears as light, but also melds with the darkness. Often they are surrounded by many Wisps and Greater Wisps, who are attracted and empowered by the energy that the Wispmothers emit. The Wispmother, in turn, controls the lesser Wisps like the queen of a hive, directing them with unknown purpose. It is rumored that Wispmothers are not related to the ordinary Deep Elves, but are instead the manifested thoughts of Shassagoth, guiding the magical Wisps to do his bidding.

A user named Sinistra posted some feedback about the Deep Elves faction balance (note: it's about the Ageless Era version, so some points are outdated, but some points are worth looking into in my opinion, such as the minotaur being rather underpowered):

For Deep Elves. First of all all the units have blade vulnerability and no unit has any combat tankiness apart from the lidh, she gets stroke 1 less time in defens (but is super squishy otherwise). The priestess line felt weak to me compared to lidh. T1 priestess is like this weird suuuuper squishy archer that has non archer dmg types, I say archer since she doesnt have magical (no t1 of that faction has magical). Granted impact ranged can be situationally useful but she has 5mp combined with very low hp and low resists. I dont feel she can get stuff done for her 17g price tag, she is very easy to assasinate with any melee unit and especially chargers. The lidh is the only other ranged able option and I end up spamming them a lot because they hold villages decently even tho their hp is so low. Their arcane only dmg is a curse most the time, any human faction tends to have like 20% arcane res. Not sure what to do of the lizard rider unit, they can do a bit free poke dmg at melee with their weird trample ability but they are overpriced compared to bloodmaiden, having less mp and dmg
Lastly bloodmaiden vs nightmaiden, they seem way too similar, both are 7mp blade only semi squishy melee units with the same resists/vulnerability. Nightmaiden costs +1 gold which is significant since one has to chose either as the main faction unit. Nightmaiden has lower total dmg but is chaotic, the other is neutral. Their abilities are a bit meh, Bloodmaiden can get +2 dmg against the last unit type she killed (assuming she managed to do kill people xD). Night maiden has a bit of extra mobility at night to flee with spurt but since this faction is so horrible at walling its hard to use spurt much. So I end up going lv2 nightmaiden leader (has squirmisher a and good assasination) and spaming bloodmaiden (less cost, more dmg, more reliable with neutral compared to nightmaiden) and lidh to keep up, it does end up feeling the faction lacks viable varieties. There is no water/flyer units in the faction either which is a big minus.
What I would suggest is giving the priestess some healing and or other utility (maybe a drain ranged attack, or a slowing one). She would greatly benefit from having a magical attack as well. Or maybe she can drain in melee instead like some vampires do. Anything so she feels she has a viable place. Nightmaiden could use a poison knife throwing 2/2 so her mini hit and run night tactics feel less useless (and so she has a use outside of night). Alternatively getting squirmisher baseline and having he cost increased to make her different from bloodmaiden. Evem both options together are fine so she would become this high cost but squishy elite manhunter. Bloodmaiden is fine its a squishy but fast grunt type unit which is interesting on it own right as most factions get slower but tanky grunts, he pricing is fair I think and she gets the job done as grunt.
Minotaur not sure why he starts lv 2 and cant level up, he feels mostly gimmicky (loosing one is giving 16 xp to the enemy, plus he has 2 maintenance for very low dmg), he can body block a frontline village at day while being in stone form which is cool and basically his only usage, but his combat performance is very bad. For some reason he also gets blade vulnerability while he should be damn tanky as a high cost (22g) low dmg minotaur. 8 2 impact is on default troll welp level.. for a level 2 melee unit ?! and the charge is only 14 1 with only 5 mp so he cant pull of horseman job either, compared to a default knight he is horrible. He needs some help for sure he is one of the most useless units for its cost in the whole mod, being on a slightly higher power level then a troll whelp (and worse power level then welp if they use blade attacks to kill him) but costing 22g and 2 maintenance.
Being mixed chaotic neutral lawful is also a problem for this faction, I think since they are designed around offensive playmaking and are horrible at defending, plus having a lore of living underground and in secrecy and prefering the night, I think they should be mostly chaotic and having maybe 1 or 2 neutrals, so they can hold villages a little bit at least during day. The lidh is lawful which makes her best at holding villages at day but she cant attack along with night maiden at night. Plus arent the deep elves supposed to be perverted and cruel ? Lawful feels super weird.

I would suggest the following changes to minotaur, to make him actually feel like a lvl1.5:
-fist damage from 8-2 to 11-2
-ram damage from 14-1 to 18-1
-cost from 22 to 23

Yeah, while I think that most critique is no longer legit since the latest Deep Elves version, I do think that the Minotaur needs some workover. Not sure about buffing his stats, though . . . I want the minotaur to be a very niche unit with a specialised usecase (blocking 1-hex paths) and I do not want him to be spammed every game. Your suggestions sound fine, gonna test that.

Thanks for pointing it out! It's rather unfortunate, that there are different kinds of Deep Elves out there, though

Hello, thanks for looking at my feedback. Sorry my posts tend to become text walls haha. I wondered how can I get your latest version of the deep elves ? I found the faction playing ageless. Visually and thematically "dark elves" type factions appeal to me the most so I tend to try and toy around with all of them to see with their capabilities. So my feedback was based on my perceived ageless power level not vs default era which is very boring anyway. I am on wesnoth 1.12 backported on linux, my linux distro only gets to wesnoth 1.10 officially. And I don't know much about changing game files generally. I havent found deep elves as an addon ingame, that would have made things easy.

For one dark elves type faction on ageless that seem to do it right in my opinion (power level and acess to a good variety of units to deal with different situations) that would be EOMA Tharis. This faction has the following features :
- unified chaotic alignment, that avoids the khalifate mixed effect which is super annoying in my opinion (it is biased opinion but most people dont seem to like khalifate much either, seing how much it sees play). I think since the deep elves are intended to attack in an opportunitic way it's fine to unify mostly in chaotic. Mostly neutral tends to lead to walling (see in default, the two mostly neutral factions are the ones walling non stop all times of the day) which the deep elves cant do anyway and that is fine but it does make being mostly neutral wasted. What rewards calculated aggression is having more dmg at some point of the day, and especially killing potential, since agression relies on dmg.
- able to not get destroyed while melee'ing people to some extend with the melee units (EOMA Tharis has a non retaliation grunt type unit with low dmg, this is done with various means for various factions, could be resists etc) now of course the deep elves dont need to copy a feature or something, they already have some unique abilities but the poor melee only maiden with -10% blade and low hp and not great defence either, well they tend to get massive retaliation in my experience, nobody goes around with an army full of low or no melee units. Even default loyalist can bully deep elves pretty heavily, pushing to siege with spearman supported by other units at day what are deep elves gonna do ? Retreating and leaving the village sieged every time will lead to slow economical death. Deep elves lack the breaking power to get the village back. If fighting then nightmaiden would get totally destroyed, blood maiden cant compete at allon a per gold basis with day spears either, lidh ? They take 2 strike per spear, that's enough to die fast with their hp pool. Priestesses will die faster then lidh. Like who will stay on the sieged village anyway ? Lidh I guess since its day and she can retal ranged, else loya will bring in mage/archer and poke a maiden on village to death easily. Even spears can poke hard at day if they wanted to. And who will help break the siege from the outside ? On open maidens will loose to loya at day for sure. I think in the end deep elves will loose the village anyway no matter if they defend or not and several units as well if they try to defend it. By the way all the water areas of the map (which can be a lot of area) will 100% of the time be under loya control with their mermen. So default loya for instance can steal one deep elf village at least per day cycle on a medium map, rince and repear while never loosing a village on their own if they play properly. If the deep elves grow impatient and try some sort of heroic last stand instead of retreat they will loose even faster). The deep elves do have more mobility and might try to attack at night with maiden on village stealing with 7 mp non flying units, that would need griffon level mobility which would be way too strong and nonsensical on deep elves, and on maps with huge water open spaces and several islands, the type of map where you must move around a lot, water makes deep elves useless anyway.
Apart from that, concerning maiden again,mMages in wesnoth (the best targets for squishy and fast melee blade dmg dealers that the maiden are) are pampered and not kept exposed to attacks from anything not skirmisher, archers or assasin types when they do get used tend to be ones that can survive melee anyway (with a combinaison of defense, resist, hp, and good melee dmg). I guess if deep elves had a higher defence it would be great and keep the low hp squishy theme, aren't they supposed to rely on avoiding dmg right rather then resisting it? None of the deep elves seem to like armor anyway. If they cant dodge or parry for their life they should wear armor. That's common sense. Is it because fantasy rules state that woman cannot wear real armor or something ? Just kidding they dont need armor if they have.. magic ! ( "a wizard did it", after all, right ?)I don't know, if lore is required to be make them nimble, then their sorceresses may have used obscure enchantements on the maiden to help them fight better and avoid blows or something, making them unaturally fast and nimble. They already are fast anyway with their mp. Even maybe giving a few magic resists in the process, thanks to the obscure magic enchantments. Elves are supposed to be nimble and agile anyway, these ones having live in a society radically different then the happy idealistic forest elfish life, they could have like 50% defence even on flat I feel by pure training even without the magic part, at least for the fighter types. Normal elves arent particularily good on flat because they are used to the forest only, they don't get out except for exceptional circomstances. After all even orcish or human asssasins get 60% on flat, not races particularily known for being nimble compared to elves. Humans can be with training (fencer), orcs... ehhhh.
- Tharis faction also access to several different ranged dmg options and elemetal types at tier 1 including one high dmg magical mage, one lower dmg mage (and having lower precision) but having a form of survability in drain (comparable to lidh in that way), and a strong melee, and an archer/assassin type unit bringing poison and high defence). The dmg types access is very nice, for instance the full mage type does cold magical ranged, the half mage type does pierce melee and a bit of fire ranged with 50% hit and drain. These allow strategic flexibility outside of the "melee them with swords till they die" when attacking, while for deep elves the breaking power has been very lacking on the version I played, it was in the mainly in melee blade of bloodmaiden, so like default orcs without the poison to harass and control the pace, that makes high defence units a real problem, especially if they are blade resistant. Or blade and arcane resistant with good hp (armored human fighters of various faction on ageless and on villages or castles = unmovable)
- Tharis are not intended for walling either, they have an offensive theme primarily and no healer. And no strong single walling unit such a default spearman. The grunt type unit is much better at offense and a bad defender (low dmg, no ability on defence and no ranged). But still despite that they can defend decently with a bit of strategic reflextion because the faction has pretty good defences on useful terrains and decent hp. The assasin type unit who has physical vulnerabilities also get up to 70% on useful castles/villages, forrests and mountains, along with pretty good melee and a poison ranged. It has backstab melee and can get marskan on the poison knife so it is definitely attack orientated but they can be used for tactical defence. The breaking power of the mages, the "safe" melee in a way ( although much lower dmg then on deep elves) amd the unified chaotic alignement allow Tharis faction to actually attack in a dangerous way when they go for it, and without taking ridiculous levels of retaliation.
- they have a water/swamp unit although its far from the best still situationally its useful, this one is mostly defensive since it has only 4mp and has regenerates with high hp pool, I dont think something similar would be useful for deep elves so the next best option that doesnt involve things with wings, mounted flying animals, flying mech or swimming people of any race :
Some factions on ageless get "magical " bats like water units (stuff like flying magical eyes with low hp and 60% defence everywhere). I think something like this in necessary for bigger maps with a lot of water if a faction isnt getting an actual combat swimmer unit.

Regards, I've been viewing the new deep elves in 1.14's servers and I noticed important factional flaws.

First of all, this faction is strongly based of blade, arcane and pierce attacks in this right order, so this faction is terrible at countering units like heavy infantry in default era. They have impact in their Minotaurs but 8-2 impact for a price of 22g is completely worthless, so basically they have no impact atackers. Trample at their riders is impact too but 9-1 attack and no counter-attack weapon seems worthless except if you really want one extra angle to attack with it. Would recomend to raise that one damage to 11-1 in order to make it more useful as damage tool. You can consider changing minotaur mele damage from 8-2 to 10-2 to make them offensively more useful and maybe the knockback damage from 14-1 to 16-1.

Nightmaiden feels completely worthless, they're more expensive than blood maiden and they have both less health and less damage and spurt is completely worthless. Maybe if you could give nightmaiden some sort of accuracy like marskman just at night or something, you could make them being considerably more useful and something to consider.

Priestess of the vault is now ruined once her impact attack was changed to arcane, Lightborn has 5-4 without magical and with decreased chances of getting damage which is indeed a much better unit than priestess of the vault is. Something you can consider to make Priesstess of the vault be considerably useful is bringing back their impact ranged attack and for a damage of 7-3 with magical or 8-3 without magical (as how it was originally). Changinc Priestess of the vault's attack back to impact could help this faction be more complete at terms of damage types. You may also maintain her actual arcane attack but as weaker version like 5-3 in order to counter better units like ghosts.

Also, avoid making Nightmaidens and Blood Maiden having too similar roles, as said, give nightmaiden something special to be considered.

Wisp is a bit underpowered, maybe increase movement from 5 to 6 maybe.

Why do you think that the spurt ability of the Nightmaiden is completely worthless? Being able to move again after an attack allows another unit to take its spot, deal damage and block other enemy units so the Nightmaiden does not get hit. I think it is rather strong? Other than that, what do you think about the Nightmaiden keeping her current spurt ability and additionaly grant her a +5 heal after an attack at night? Would certainly make her more durable?

A quick note in case this isn't intentional: The english word for a female priest is priestess (without the "r" after "t"). You used both types of spelling here, but at least in the unit database the unit is still called "priestress"

Under blood-red skies an old man sits in the ruins of Carthage contemplating prophecy.